OTTAWA — It was not the start anyone envisioned for defending world women’s champion Rachel Homan at the Canadian Olympic curling trials.

Playing in their hometown, Homan and her teammates were not at all sharp in the opening draw and lost 8-4 to Chelsea Carey of Calgary.

Homan’s team struggled with draw weight and line calls, while Carey had her A-game and pulled off the early upset.

“First game, we’re just learning the rocks and the ice and we’re excited to be out here,” said Homan, who was not overly talkative but still tried to put a positive spin on the loss. “Someone’s got to win and someone’s got to lose. It’s one game and it’s the first of a long week. We’re not taking any of this for granted and we just want to learn as much as we can.”

There are still seven more round-robin games for Homan and her teammates Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle to get things turned around. Homan and Miskew definitely weren’t at their best, curling 76% and 73% respectively.

“It’s a long week and winning or losing your first game doesn’t really matter that much,” Carey said.

“No question about it, you know (Homan) is going to be there at the end of the week. To get that little advantage, that we know we can beat her, is nice. We knew we would have to play our best game against them and we were lucky enough to pull it off.”

Carey, the 2016 Canadian champion, had a great game, curling 93%, scoring deuces in the third, fifth and eighth ends.

Like Homan, she said the first game is more about getting a feel for the ice, but it surely feels a lot better saying that after a decisive win over a formidable opponent.

“Your goal is less about the result and more about just wanting to learn the ice,” Carey said. “We were able to focus on that and we were lucky enough to pull out a win. That part is a bonus. We were really more concerned about figuring the ice out and we feel like we learned a lot out there. We’re feeling pretty good going into the next game.”

In the other women’s action Saturday, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, the 2014 Olympic champion, gave up a steal of three in the first end but bounced back to beat Val Sweeting of Edmonton 9-6.

“Definitely not routine,” Jones said. “You’re going to have those games where you talk about finding a way to win. All in all I was pretty happy with how we played. It was just that one draw in the first end that led to the steal of three.”

Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay beat Winnipeg’s Michelle Englot 9-4 and Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., scored one with the hammer in the 10th to beat Alison Flaxey of Toronto 6-5.

“It feels really good to get a win under your belt because you know you’re not going to go O-fer now,” Scheidegger said. “It’s good to start off with that and build some confidence.

“We’ve been building up to this for a long time. It was good to get going. It’s an amazing experience and we’re taking it all in. There were a few moments where we said ‘This is really cool to be here, in such a great building, with all these fans.’”

The favourite on the men’s side also lost his first game. Current world champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Nfld., lost 6-4 to John Epping of Toronto.

He made a great shot with his last rock in the 10th end, looking to tie it and send it to an extra, but his shooter spun just a little too far and it wound up as a steal for Epping.

“It was a tough shot,” Gushue said. “Probably in hindsight — we were a little tight on time — I threw it a hair too hard, to create that spin. We got through the hole just about as good as we could, but maybe a hair hard.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” Koe said. “We qualified for this event two years ago. It’s nice to get out there. It’s pretty exciting and obviously it’s awesome to get a win.

We were patient. Things didn’t go our way the first half but we stayed patient.”

The Carey foursome, which also includes second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters, played as Team Canada in the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts with Amy Nixon at third. She stepped away from the game after that event and Carey replaced her with veteran third Cathy Overton-Clapham of Winnipeg.

Overton-Clapham, 48, has played in three previous Olympic trials and has won five Canadian women’s championships.

She’s been a steadying influence on the team and said she’s impressed with the consistency of the Carey crew. They haven’t lost an opening game at an event all season.

Still, Overton-Clapham admits she felt like a rookie as the game got underway.

“It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been to play a game, I don’t know why,” Overton-Clapham said. “The big arena, I haven’t played in it for years, and just knowing this is probably my last trials I just wanted to come out here and play the best I can this week.”

Overton-Clapham gave all the credit for the win to Carey.

“I felt that Chelsea had a real good handle on the ice,” she said. “She felt confident where she was putting the broom. Obviously it’s a feel-out game for everyone, to get a feel of the draw weight and how to read the ice and I think Chelsea did an amazing job today.”